


Day 299

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [299]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27218749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [299]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 2





	Day 299

Aveline cautiously pried off the boards that sealed the door to the abandoned building Hawke had just purchased. The owner had been killed by the Qunari and it had been sitting empty for almost a year now. There was a good chance there were squatters inside. It was possible they were simply common folks with nowhere else to sleep, but with Hawke’s luck, Aveline figured chances were high whoever was here would be dangerous.

Hawke had wanted to take possession during the day but Aveline had talked him out of it. It would be dark inside and if they were attacked, Aveline didn’t want their eyes trying to adjust to the low light. Varric and Anders were there to help as well. Anders assured them he was pretty sure there were no rebel mages hiding inside, but he seemed not to know as much about the resistance anymore. It seemed even other mages couldn’t stand the man. 

After the last board was freed, Aveline nodded to the others and opened the door. The first thing she noticed was a lack of dust covering everything. Someone had been sweeping the building. There was a good deal of unused pottery equipment and unfired clay shards laying about. The group moved through the building cautiously, ready for an attack. The upper floor was covered in a series of blankets that hid everything from view. If someone was hiding here, that was probably where they were.

A sharp whistling was all the warning Aveline had, but it was enough. Her shield was already up and she only needed to move it slightly to catch the arrows that came for her head. A group of men in leathers leaped from behind the blankets with weapons drawn. Aveline charged forwards to block the staircase and keep the enemy contained.

“We are the children of Maferath,” called the leader.

“We didn’t ask,” Varric called back unleashing a volley of bolts from Bianca.

One of the men charged Aveline, trying to knock her back down the stairs. Instead, he crashed into her shield and flipped over her head, landing on the ground behind her. Aveline trusted that her companions would deal with him, letting Aveline keep her focus forwards. The next attacker was more cautious using a flail to try to hook his attack around her shield. The elven four pointed design of the shield had many notches in it and the chains of the flail got caught in one. He tried to pull the weapon free but Aveline, being lower or the staircase, had the advantage in a tug of war and disarmed her attacker. 

Before Aveline could mount a counterattack, the man fled. Aveline tried to give chase but got briefly tangled in the blankets on the upper floor. She freed herself just in time to see the man disappear through a trapdoor.

After a quick check that the fight was over, Aveline tried to open the trapdoor and found it locked.

“If you want to blast through,” she said to Hawke, “we can chase down the survivors.”

“First let's try to figure out where that leads,” Hakwe said. They checked the lower floor but the trap door seemed to lead somewhere behind the back wall. In the end, they decided to move something heavy on top of the trapdoor and post guards to make sure the… cultists Aveline assumed, didn’t return. She figured it would only be a matter of time before they showed up again, probably in Darktown, but for now, Hawke’s building was secure.


End file.
